The present invention relates to a new plasma generating apparatus and matter and materials processing methods using that apparatus, such as thin film formation, surface processing of substrates or matter, and chemical reactions.
Materials processing techniques using plasma generating apparatuses are widely used in advanced materials preparation, as currently represented by electronic devices and ULSI. However, the problems with these apparatuses include high costs, large size, high power consumption, difficult processes, and inefficiency in the creation of new matter and materials. In particular, there are no means for generating plasma in arbitrarily small regions and for processing using plasma.
In view of such circumstances, it is an object of the present invention to provide a plasma generating apparatus that is inexpensive, small in size, has low power consumption, allows for simple processing, and makes the creation and development of new matter and materials very efficient. Furthermore it is an object of the present invention to provide methods for processing matter and materials using the plasma generating apparatus, including thin film formation, surface processing, and chemical reactions in a plurality of arbitrarily small regions of a substrate.
In order to achieve these objects, the substrate electrode plasma generating apparatus relating to the present invention has at least one pair of electrodes arranged on a single substrate, generates plasma between the electrode pairs, and generates plasma in an arbitrary gas atmosphere.
In the abovementioned substrate electrode plasma generating apparatus of another embodiment of the present invention, the plasma generated between the abovementioned electrode pairs is direct current plasma or alternating current plasma. Also, in the abovementioned substrate electrode plasma generating apparatus, the abovementioned arbitrary atmosphere is vacuum, gas, or liquid. In the abovementioned substrate electrode plasma generating apparatus, the abovementioned electrode pairs are electrode pairs comprising thin films disposed on a substrate. Also, in the abovementioned substrate electrode plasma generating apparatus, a plurality of electrode pairs disposed on the same substrate, but each of the electrode pairs is controlled independently of the others.
With these substrate electrode plasma generating apparatuses, plasma generated between conventional upper and lower electrodes can form a plurality of small quantities of plasma at any location on the surface of a single substrate.
In order to achieve the abovementioned objects, the matter and materials processing method uses the abovementioned substrate electrode plasma generating apparatus to form thin films comprising any material at any location on a separate substrate or matter. The matter and materials processing method relating to another embodiment of the present invention uses the abovementioned substrate electrode plasma generating apparatus to form thin films comprising arbitrary materials at any position on the same substrate. Furthermore, in the method relating to another embodiment, the source material for said thin films is gas or liquid. Yet another embodiment uses the abovementioned substrate electrode plasma generating apparatus to perform surface processing such as ashing, etching, washing, and reforming of another substrate surface.
Another embodiment uses the abovementioned substrate electrode plasma generating apparatus to cause chemical reactions using arbitrary materials at any position on another substrate. Another embodiment causes chemical reactions using arbitrary materials at any position on the same substrate.
The matter and materials processing methods as discussed above make possible the formation of thin films comprising arbitrary materials on a plurality of arbitrarily small regions of a surface, or make it possible to perform surface processing such as ashing, etching, washing, and reforming, and chemical reactions, on the same or a different substrate. Furthermore, another embodiment uses an inkjet method as the method for supplying arbitrary liquid materials used in the processes.
In yet another embodiment of the matter and materials processing method, said inkjet method uses a plurality of nozzles and supplies one or more types of liquid material.
Particularly with the matter and materials processing method using such an inkjet method, one or a plurality of liquid materials, in the desired quantities, can be supplied easily to a plurality of small plasma formation regions.